That's where mine is...works fine. Note, these things come in different power ratings. They had a really wimpy one in there when I bought the place...the bell sounded, but was not very loud. I upgraded it to a higher wattage, and it now is distinctly louder and I can actually hear it upstairs in the bedroom, which was difficult before. Compare the recommended wattage for the transformer on your bell to what you have, and adjust as required. While any transformer uses some energy even when there's no load (i.e., nobody's pressing the button), the difference isn't all that much, and you aren't holding the doorbell button very long, which is when it draws the rated watts.

When I gutted the mess of a finished basement I found mine. It was coming off one of the boxes for a ceiling light. Of course it was inaccessible since the ceiling was sheetrocked. They dummies also took power for the oil furnace off that box.